Anna pressed it. The ship rocked as a missile streaked from its hull, splitting the air. The dragon turned its long neck toward the missile, realizing its doom. With a scream, the dragon turned away, flapping its wings madly to flee. But it was futile. The missile struck in a fiery ball of orange, blasting the dragon straight downward to the surface. One of the wings was ripped completely off. The dragon spun madly in circles, helicoptering toward the ground, leaving in its wake a trail of purple blood that misted into ice in the frigid air.
That was when an impact came from the back of the ship, causing Aeneas to lurch forward. Anna veered the control stick upward, angling toward the clouds above. The readout LCD revealed Chaos just behind, gaining on us with massive speed.
“He’s tailing us,” Anna said. “Damn, he’s fast!”
“Lose him in the clouds,” Makara said. “Gilgamesh still has a few missiles left.”
“How much longer, Makara?” Ashton asked.
“Just a minute! It’s hard to do all of this on my own.”
Chaos took on a sudden burst of speed, his jaws snapping toward Aeneas’s retrothrusters. Anna did a little dip to avoid the dragon’s attack, causing everyone standing on the bridge to topple to the deck once more. When the ship steadied, I decided to stay on the deck. It was probably safer than standing up.
“Alright, got him in my sights,” Makara said. “Here goes nothing.”
From outside, I heard the spew of one missile, then a second, hissing through the air. Chaos was still close. Anna made a sudden dive. The top of a peak came into view, not too far distant. We could not keep this dive up for long — maybe ten seconds before crashing. From behind, Julian and Michael both slid into me. I banged into the back of the pilot’s chair.
A colossal scream sounded from behind, followed by an explosion. Chaos had been hit.
Anna swooped us around as she evened out Aeneas. We had turned 180 degrees and were facing the direction Chaos has been chasing us from. A cloud of smoke filled the air where Chaos had been. I looked down, expecting Chaos to be falling to the mountains below. Instead, there was nothing but empty air.
“Makara, do you have visual of the dragon?” Ashton asked.
“Negative. It got real bright, but afterward, I saw nothing. Only one of the missiles hit. It must have flown up in the clouds…”
“It’s still alive?” I asked.
I didn’t see how it was possible. How could anything be alive after being hit like that?
Our question was soon answered as Chaos lowered from the clouds, flapping its massive wings. It let out an ungodly bellow as it dove, not for us, but for Makara. It folded its wings as it dropped with surprising speed.
“Makara!” Ashton said. “Run. Fly as fast as you can from here.”
“But…”
“Do as I say!” Ashton said. “There’s only one thing that’ll bring this bastard down once and for all.”
With a curse, Makara piloted Gilgamesh away from Chaos, just in time to dodge its crazy dive. Gilgamesh appeared to be faster than Aeneas, so maybe Makara could keep it busy while we took our turn. Chaos gave chase to Gilgamesh. We had a small window to attack before either Makara messed up or Chaos managed to catch her.
“What are you doing, Ashton?” I asked.
He stared at his screen, keying at it intently. We watched for a moment as Anna floated closer to the dragon, keeping the ship locked on it.
“Anna…” Ashton said. “Fire when ready.”
Anna paused only a moment before pressing the red button. A single gray missile streaked out of the ship just as Makara gained good speed. Still, Chaos was locked on Gilgamesh, not giving Makara a break for even a moment.
“Run,” Ashton said. “Faster, Makara!”
We had only been turning for a moment when the missile connected with a brightness that rivaled a thousand suns. Immediately, the windows tinted, but I still had to shield my eyes.
Then, I realized: we had launched a nuke at Chaos — and it had connected.
At last, the sound caught up with the light, and an unnatural roar unlike any I had ever heard blasted the ship. The entire hull vibrated, and Anna had trouble turning the lumbering spacecraft away. Finally, when it was angled enough away and the massive, orange mushroom cloud was no longer visible, Anna gave Aeneas all it had. The retrothrusters burned to full, blasting Aeneas toward the south with amazing speed. The LCD revealed the fiery cloud spreading ever outward.
I was still on the floor. I crawled to get up as soon as I was sure that this was over, that all the dragons that were attacking us were dead.
“Keep going,” Ashton said. “I want to make sure we are good and out of range.”
We continued. Nothing but static emanated from the radio. We had no idea if Makara had made it. She had been closer to the blast than we had. Still, she had been far enough to be safe.
Hadn’t she?
Chapter 17
Five minutes later the bridge was still silent. The explosion from behind still crackled and expanded outward, the hellish clouds covering the mountains. Of Makara and Gilgamesh there was no sign.
“She made it,” Ashton said. “I know she did.”
“Well, she’s not coming out of that thing,” Anna said. “Maybe…maybe it’s time we faced the facts.”
The radar was not working properly — something about the blast had knocked it out. I’d read something about electromagnetic pulses once, so maybe that had something to do with…
“Wait,” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“If she was caught in the EMP that could have grounded her.”
“I’m sorry,” Julian asked. “EMP?”
“Electromagnetic pulse,” Ashton said. “And no, she would have been far enough away from the blast to not have been affected by it. Besides, military craft are built to withstand it, and it’s only at high altitude that the Earth’s magnetic field…”
“Is she alive or not?” Anna cut in.
“It could be turbulence,” Ashton said.
“Regardless of that,” Elias said, stepping forward.
Everyone turned — I’d almost forgotten Elias and his followers were there, watching the entire time.
“We’ll take it from here,” Elias said.
I stood, meeting Elias’s stare. “Not until we’ve found our friend.”
Julian, Michael, and Grudge stepped beside me. Immediately, the Community women reached for their own weapons.
“Stop this madness,” Ashton said. “We’ll accomplish nothing as long as we are at each other’s throats.” He turned his blue eyes on Elias. “How do you expect to get anything done when you threaten the lives of this ship’s only pilots?”
Elias’s face reddened. He knew he had no answer for that. From the center of the deck, Deborah and Ada watched Elias coolly. Elias took notice.
“You,” Elias said with gritted teeth. He took a step toward the women. “I know it was you who did this. You launched this ship.” His eyes narrowed. “I’ve always known you were tainted.”
“That didn’t stop you from trying, though,” Deborah said. “Did it?”
From the way Lyn looked at Elias as his face burned crimson, it didn’t take much imagination to know what “trying” meant. Deborah’s eyes taunted while Ada only looked unsure.
“What of it, Elias?” Deborah asked. “Are you going to kill me now?”
With a roar, Elias arched an arm back.
“Stop!” I yelled.